I wonder if you have your Bible with you tonight, could you turn
with me please to the Old Testament Scriptures and to the
second book of Kings, Second Kings and chapter 5, very, very
familiar portion of God's word, the story of a man we sometimes
call General Naman when we're speaking to the boys and the
girls. But I want to preach tonight on
what we've called the salvation of a stranger, and I'll show you
why in just a moment or two. But Second Kings chapter 5,
commencing to read at verse one, the Bible says now Naaman,
captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with
his master, and honourable because by him the Lord had
given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man and
valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by
companies that had brought away captive out of the land of
Israel. A little maid and she waited on
Naiman's wife. She said unto her mistress,
Would God, my Lord, we're with the prophet that is in Samaria,
for he would recover him of his leprosy.
And one went in and told his Lord, saying Thus.
And thus said the maid, that is, of the land of Israel, and the
king of Syria said, Go to go, and I will send the letter unto
the king of Israel. And he departed and took with
him 10 talents of silver, and 6000 pieces of gold, and 10
changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the
king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee,
behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that
thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
Came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, that
he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make
alive, that this man does send unto me to recover a man of his
leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh A quarrel against me.
And it was so when Alicia the man of God, heard that the king
of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king,
saying, Wherefore hast thy rent thy clothes?
Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a
prophet at Israel. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of
Alicia. And Alicia sent a messenger on
to him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan 7 times, and thy flesh
shall come again to thee, and thy shalt be clean.
But Naman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I
thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on
the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the
place, and recover the leper. Are not Habana and far power
rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean?
So he turned and went away in a rage, and the servants came
near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have
done it? How much rather than when he
saith unto thee, Wash and be clean.
Then he went down and dipped himself 7 times.
And Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, this
flesh came again like onto the flesh of a little child, and he
was clean. He returned to the man of God,
he and all his company, and came and stood before him.
And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God and all the
earth but in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, take
a blessing of Thy servant. We learned our reading there at
verse 15. May God bless to us as He always
does, the public reading of His own inspired and His infallible
Word. Let's just by briefly in prayer
again and ask God's blessing upon the ministry of His Word.
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee again tonight for all Thy
goodness to us. We thank Thee, Lord, again for
the offer of the gospel. We thank Thee that the Bible
says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. And we thank Thee for this
incident, this story, and the word of God that tells us in the
life of Naaman. The Naaman obed and went down at
the message of the man of God and dipped himself seven times
in the Jordan, and he was cleansed from his leprosy.
Lord, we thank Thee tonight that our God is able to cleanse men
and women from their sin. What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Lord, may some precious soul or
souls come to know Christ, be cleansed from all their sin, be
filled out and ready for heaven, and for whom bless us now.
Lord, fill me with the Holy Ghost I take the promised Holy
Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost to fill me to the
uttermost I take. Thank God He'll undertake for
me. Be with us now, Lord, as we with
honour Thy presence, for we ask all these things in Jesus name,
Amen. Amen.
Now, as we said, I want to think with you for a moment or two in
the closing minutes of our service about the salvation of a
stranger. I say that because the Bible
tells us of at least two people who were called naman.
In the book of Genesis, chapter 46 and verse 21, we're told
about some men who were the sons of Benjamin, and among them was
a man by the name of Naaman. He was a Jew.
This man, Naaman was captain of the host of the king of Syria,
and he was a Gentile. But our blessed Saviour the Lord
Jesus Christ, when he was preaching, he said in Luke's
Gospel chapter 4 and in verse 27, Jesus said and many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Alicia the prophet, and none of
them was cleansed. Saving Naaman the Syrian.
Jesus said there were many lepers even in the camp of
Israel in the days of Alicia the prophet, but he said none of
them was cleansed except this man, Naaman the the Syrian.
So that gives us a wonderful hope.
That gives us a hope, as the old hymn writer says, that is
steadfast and sure. That speaks about the Amazing
Grace of God, that God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son. It doesn't matter whether it's
Jew or Gentile or Protestant or Catholic or educated or
illiterate or rich or poor. But thank God all may come and
seek the Lord for salvation. And thank God they are assured
of that welcome by the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to think with you tonight about this man name and this
mighty man, this courageous man, this man of valour, this captain
in the host of the King of Surrey.
But I want to just to think it in a very simple way.
In the Bible, when God would draw our attention to something,
he often uses the word behold. Behold for instance, the Bible
reminds us that Psalmist says behold I was born in sin and
shapen in iniquity. Reminds us of our state before
God. We were born in sin and shapen
iniquity. John the Baptist, when he
preached at the Fort of Jordan and he saw the Lord Jesus
coming, he pointed to Jesus and he said, behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world.
And that word beholdeth it grabs our attention, grabbed the
attention of the people. They turned, they looked to see
the one who was coming, the Lamb of God who would take away the
Son of the world. The Bible reminds us in the Book
of Revelation that the Lord Jesus Christ said to the people
in Revelation chapter 22, Behold, I come quickly.
We know not the day nor the hour when the Lord Jesus Christ may
come back again. We knew not the day or the hour
when you or me may be ushered out into God's eternity.
Therefore, as the Bible teaches us, behold, now is the accepted
time, and now is the day of salvation.
When should a man prepare for eternity now?
When should he get right with God now?
When should he seek the Lord now?
Because now is the day of salvation Today the Bible says,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart.
And I want to take that word, behold, and just three mentions
of it there in the story of Naaman and see how it applies to
his life. You'll notice first of all, what
I might call behold, the misery in his life.
In verse 6, Naaman goes with a letter from his king to the king
of Israel. And the letter says, Now when
this letter is come on to thee, behold, I have sent, I have
therewith sent Naman my servant to thee, that thou mayest
recover him of his leprosy. And the word behold draws our
attention to the fact first of all of the misery.
And Naman say he was a leper. The Bible says in verse 1 he was
captain of the host. The Bible says in verse 1 he was
a great man with his master. It says there in verse 1 of
chapter he was honourable. It says he was a man who had
known victory, for by him God had given deliverance unto
Syria. He was a mighty man in valour,
but he was a leper with all these great and glorious and
good things in the life of this man.
Naman, the Bible says he was a leper.
It's great to read the story about our dear brother, the late
Doctor Bill Woods, and how Doctor Bill went out with the
Akri Gospel Mission and I went to the land of Brazil and how he
studied in a foreign language and became a doctor.
And, and I was commended by the late Her Majesty the Queen.
And he was commended by the Brazilian government because
through his programme, the disease of leprosy was almost
eradicated throughout the Agri region.
But way back in Naman's day, there was no cure, there was no
hope. A man had a leprosy.
It was a death sentence. We don't know when or where or
her. But one day, when Neiman was
perhaps at home and taken off his uniform and all the marks of
the office that he held, he discovered the plague of leprosy
in his body. Behold the misery in his life.
He was a leper. He had many other things.
He could speak with the king. He had popularity amongst the
men of the soldiers he had. He was a brave man and a great
man and power and probably wealth along with it.
But he was a leper. And so the Bible reminds us that
no matter how well we do in this world, whether we be well off or
whether we're we're poor, whether we are the most educated
person or the most illiterate person, the Bible says that all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
We have one thing in common. There is one common denominator
that every man and woman born of Adam's sinful and fallen ruined
race, we are sinners before God. And the Bible says the soul that
sitteth it shall die. The Bible says it is appointed
unto man wants to die. And after this the judgement.
So one day Neiman discovered that he was a leper, that there
was a death sentence upon him, no cure.
But then was a little girl who was a slave who had been taken
away from her home in the land of Israel as she'd been captured
and taken into Syria, as she was made to wait upon Neiman's wife.
But with all credit to that little girl who was taken away
from her home and her family and from her religion, even there in
a foreign land, even there as a captive, she was faithful to
God, faithful to the Lord Jehovah God.
And she says, if my Lord naman, my master naman, she says to the
name of would God, my Lord were with the prophet, that is, in
summer, if he could get to the prophet and he would cure him,
he would recover him of his leprosy.
He is the prophet of God, the living God, the true God, the
one and only God, the one who is all power, the one who is
Creator and sustainer of all things, the one who can do
anything. And so they tell Naaman, But I
want you to notice the second behold.
You notice in verse 11 it says, But Naaman was wroth and went
away and said, behold, I thought he will surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper.
Want you to see the second behold.
Behold the mistakes in the human's life.
It's all about the misery in his life.
I think about the mistakes in his life, but of course it
started off when he told the king about this cure, about this
prophet in the land of Israel. And the king says, well listen,
I'll write you a letter, I'll put my seat on it, I'll send you
a letter and you go to the king. But the wee girl didn't tell him
to go to the king. He says, would God, my Lord was
with the prophet, that is in summer.
He went to the wrong person. And I wonder sometimes as we go
through life's journey, how many men and women, boys and girls,
young people have gone to the wrong person.
People may go to the cults, people may go to fortune
tellers, people may go to astrologers, people may go to
all sorts of people and groups and things in order to find the
meaning of life. But there's only one person, as
we said this morning, they're said to be, according to the
statistics, 4300 different religions in this world.
But as I said this morning, there's only one Saviour and
there's only one door and there's only one way, the Lord
Jesus Christ. So Damon went to the wrong
person. Sometimes people are depending
on the preacher or on a priest or a prelate or a Pope.
He went to the wrong person. And you'll notice also that when
he went in verse 5, the Bible says he departed and took with
him 10 talents of silver, 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes
of raiment. He has the wrong price.
He thinks that he can buy this cure.
He thinks that he can purchase that he can pay for health.
Sometimes people feel that they can buy their way or pay their
way to heaven. But as the apostle Peter said in
first Peter One and verse 18 and 19, we are not redeemed with
corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the
precious blood of Christ. We cannot equal the cost that
Jesus paid at Calvary. So we behold the mistakes in his
life. He went to the wrong person and
he came with the wrong price, and he's thinking about the
wrong place. And much of this is to do with
what he is thinking. He says, behold, I thought, see
the Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of deaths.
And Namus says, I thought, I thought, I thought this prophet
would come out and he would stand and he would make a big
demonstration and he'd strike the place of the leper, and I
would procured. And he, he tells me to go down
to the Jordan River, the the muddy banks of the river Jordan
and dip 7 times. He says, are not the beautiful
rivers of Habana the far power rivers of Damascus?
Are they not more beautiful? Are they not better than Jordan?
So he thinks who's the wrong person and he comes with the
wrong price and he's thinking about the wrong procedure.
I thought he would come out not the river Jordan.
Remember the old gospel preachers of bygone day?
I think Doctor Paisley preached on one occasion about Nieman and
he calls it 7 ducks in a muddy river.
Neyman had to go and duck down 7 times in the river Jordan in
obedience to the command of the prophet of God in order to be
clean. But Neyman had to go and he had
to wait outside, had to humble himself.
And the prophet sent a messenger out and he gave him a message.
And then Neyman eventually, as the Bible says, he was wroth, he
was angry, he went away in a rage.
You know, sometimes people hear the gospel of Christ and they
say, well, I've been a good church man.
I, I have paid into the church. I've been a good neighbour.
I've been a good friend to my friends.
I, I, I have been charitable. I have been a good neighbour.
I have done this, that the other thing.
And surely God will have to accept me into his Kingdom.
Naaman had to go and divest himself of his uniform and go
down into the waters of Jordan. The servants were very wise.
That we girl who was a slave girl, she was very wise.
But Naaman's servants were very wise also.
They said, Master, if the prophet told you to do some
great thing, if the prophet had to come out and said to Naaman,
I want you to go and conquer this mountain, I want you to go
and do this. I want you to go and take so
many people and slay them. I want you to fight.
I want you. He would have done it, but it
just seemed to be so simple and it didn't align with Naaman's
thinking. Just to go and wash in the
Jordan 7 times. But the servants were very wise
and so eventually never comes. And so I want you to notice the
third. Behold the last one.
Behold the misery of his life. He was a leper.
Behold the mistakes in his life. Listen.
Behold the miracle in his life. Look at verse 15.
He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came
and stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know
that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.
Thy therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant.
And the prophet of God said, as the Lord liveth before whom I
stand, I will receive none. He urged them to take it, but he
refused. Naman could witness thy a
miracle that happened in his life in obedience to the message
from God when he went to the river Jordan and dipped himself
seven times in the Jordan he was cleansed from his disease.
His flesh, the Bible says, was like the flesh verse 14 of a
little child and he was clean. He was cleansed and then thank
God he was confident instead of doubts.
He says, Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but
it is real and thank God he confessed his deliverance,
confessed it before others, and he consecrated himself on to
God. He turned from his idols to
serve the living and the true God.
You know, sometimes we want salvation, but we want it our
way and maybe sometimes we have it all worked out.
I remember dear woman, Roman Catholic woman came to me in the
Church many years ago when I was in Banbridge and she came to
know the Lord Jesus Christ as her own and personal Saviour.
Her boys had been saved at our children's meeting they
witnessed to their mum and she came and was saved.
And her husband who was a Protestant and a great man for
the, the loyal institutions, he came and he got saved.
And he said to me, Fred, you know, I always thought that I
would get saved 1st and then my wife and then my boys.
But he says the boys came and then she came and like, and
sometimes we have this all worked out in our heads, but God
steps in and God moves and name and had it all worked out.
He, he thought the prophet would come out and the prophet would
strike the place and he would be cured.
But God said go, go and wash seven times, just like the man.
Jesus says go and wash in the pool of silo go.
And the question is, are we willing?
Are we obedient to come to God? God's way Bible teaches us that
we are sinners, all of sinned and come short of the glory of
God. The Bible teaches us that
whosoever that means you, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, shall be saved.
That's all it takes. The old Gospel him says he's
only a prayer away. Just like Blaine.
Bartimaeus sat by the highway side begging.
He heard that Jesus was passing that way, and he cried out.
Jesus, thy Son of David, have mercy upon me.
And that call fell upon the lips of the Saviour.
The Saviour came, cleansed him, cured him from his blindness,
but saved his precious soul. And thank God tonight the
Saviour, as the old gospel hymn says, is waiting to enter your
heart. Why do you not come and receive
him? Let's go together.
Just a wee word of prayer as we bring our meeting to a close.
Thinking about Naman and the beholds in his life.
Behold the misery in his life and all the mistakes that he
made in his life. But thank God for the miracle.
Life was changed. Thank God tonight, if any man or
woman be in Christ, they're a new creation, new creature.
All things are passed away and all things have become you.
I am your servant for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake.
If I can help you to Christ, point you and show you the way.
I can't save you, but I can point you the way and show you
the way the one who can. The old hymn says, I know a man
who can, The God man, the Lord Jesus, He's able and mighty to
save. Just tell us of your need and
gladly show you from God's Word, God's way, how you can be saved,
how you can be sure that you're saved and know that it's well
with your soul for time and for eternity.
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee again tonight for the simple
message of the gospel. We thank Thee for the story
recorded in Thy word, this historical incident of Naaman
and how God cleansed them from his leprosy.
And Lord, we thank Thee that God is still in the throne and God
is still in the soul saving business, and that the Lord
Jesus Christ is able to save to the very uttermost all them that
come unto God by Him. So bless Your word as it's gone
forth we pray and bring sinners to Christ.
Restore the backslidden in heart.
No God, bless your people. Separate us now with Thy
blessing. Take us all to our homes in
safety and abide with us. May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
rest and remain and abide with us all now until the Lord Jesus
Christ comes or calls. Amen.